Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Broke & Fabulous in the 21st Century
Beacon and Tide Productions
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Dramedy, LGBTQ+, New Writing, Queer Theatre, Theatre
Venue: Gilded Balloon Patter House
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Broke and Fabulous in the 21st Century is an unabashed dramedy about two fabulous best friends, Alex and Petunia, chasing their dreams and navigating love in their chaotic 30s. This millennial love letter is a riotous ode to friendship, ambition and the ridiculousness of modern love. So come grab a drink, darlings! and let us split your sides with this honestly raucous, raunchy play, proving that even broke and frazzled you can always be fabulous…
Review
Meet Alex, living in a converted/disused theatre, bedroom a feast of shabby chic, a renaissance painting propped up here, a chest for clothes there. There’s a bulbed mirror, naturally, and Beethoven records on display. Alex is sleeping with the clear and confident Ben, who “doesn’t normally do this with men”, and, in between, takes visits from best friend Petunia who pouts in fishnets and RP vowels, wondering whether her situationship is doomed. Alex listens, speech full of “my sweet angel” without taking a beat’s break from skin and haircare routine.
Think Girls, Bridget Jones, movies of Richard Curtis, early Alan Ayckbourne. The friends are drama school graduates fallen on hard times. Posh and privileged, and yet. Alex is living a “glorified squat” existence, skipping meals for money but not going without a daily coffee run. They “yas” each other, ever affectionate with choruses of “darlings” and lots of hair stroking. This is sex, drugs, and rock and roll but for the present day thirty-something. It knows itself, and the political climate in which it sits (“culture wars, actual wars”). One character muses on their possibly messed up priorities ,“I still want to be rich and famous”, but quickly adds that they’d settle for stable. They may be on the floor, high and in tears at how wrong things have gone for them but the audience is allowed to laugh at their plight.
Broke And Fabulous in the 21st Century is a script for and about millennial life, and in dialogue with social commentary- whether giving up Instagram, pondering OnlyFans as a way to make money, or remarking on Gen Z not knowing about pre-gaming (there is a lot of drinking in this show). There are offhand remarks about being right-brain dominant, the Cocteau twins, one’s aura. Words like “adjustment” and “vicious circle” are used. Here is the disconnect of a childhood surrounded by economic prosperity and being told you were special only to meet non-stop disaster in adulthood.
It is a very funny, tightly scripted play of great jokes, set pieces, and quick dialogue. Dynamic and fast paced throughout, it is also prone to philosophising, about masculinity, suffering, love, how to live a beautiful life. I wonder whether the more serious themes could be dropped in earlier, dotted through frequently but lightly in a way that keeps what is meaningful and poignant but doesn’t risk the wryness. There is a wickedly enjoyable ending that could have landed even more with just a tiny bit less rush through the final scene.
Also notable are great details in its use of phones- so often something theatre avoids. Here we get a high pitched and exaggerated stream of unintelligible “babababa” from the other end of a call, messages vibrate noisily, dialogue leans in to communication methods (“you fucking love a voicenote”), and characters check their tech as though it has always been an easy thing to dramatise.
Like its characters, this play is outrageous, touching, sentimental, privileged, and funny. See it for a little old-school falling-apart dramedy brought into a very twenty-first century setting.
